Li Yuan, the emperor of the Tang Dynasty
Why did Li Yuan, the emperor of the Tang Dynasty, have "three breasts"?
When ancient historians beautified emperors, they usually had two special skills: one was to make auspicious phenomena appear around the birth bed at birth, such as auspicious clouds, coiling dragons, gods, purple smoke, etc.; The children born are different, such as eyes with double pupils, hands above the knees, earlobes above the shoulders, a purple mole, and some are extremely tall, etc. However, it seems rare for people to make issues with men's nipples.
A group of historians in the Song Dynasty liked to write articles on men’s nipples. They successively performed breast implants on Li Yuan, the emperor of the Tang Dynasty. This is an indisputable fact. Three books including "New Book of Tang", "Taiping Yulan" and "Cefu Yuangui" compiled during the Song Dynasty all have written records that Li Yuan had "three breasts". "Taiping Yulan" states that "the great ancestor was born in peace, with purple energy rushing into the courtyard, and divine light shining in the room. He had three breasts on his body and a purple will like a dragon under his left armpit." The hype was closely followed by "Cefu Yuangui", which recorded that Tang Gaozu "had three breasts on his body and a purple will like a dragon under his left armpit." Following in his footsteps is the "New Book of Tang", which states that "Ren Gong was born in Chang'an. He had three breasts and a tolerant nature. He was granted the title of Duke of Tang." These historical books all show that Tang Gaozu Li Yuan had more nipples than ordinary people, making people confused whether this is a group deception or real history.
"Taiping Yulan" is a history book compiled by scholars such as Li Fang, Li Mu, Xu Xuan and others in the Northern Song Dynasty. It began in the second year of the Taiping Xingguo period (977) and was completed in the eighth year (983). It was collected by various categories of books and was originally named "Taiping General Category". Emperor Taizong of the Song Dynasty read it on a daily basis and changed the name to this name. It is worth noting that when this history book reprinted the content about Emperor Gaozu of the Tang Dynasty, it specifically added the three words "Book of Tang Dynasty". At this time, the "New Book of Tang Dynasty" written by Ouyang Xiu had not yet come out. It can be seen that the "Taiping Yulan" mentioned Specifically referring to the "Old Tang Book" written by Liu Yu and Zhang Zhaoyuan.
The "Old Book of Tang" records Gaozu's appearance: "Gaozu was born in Chang'an in the first year of Zhou Tianhe, and he attacked the Duke of Tang at the age of seven. As he grew older, he was suave and open-minded, willful and forthright, tolerant and tolerant of others. No matter how noble or humble he is, he will be favored. In the Sui Dynasty, Emperor Wen of the Sui Dynasty received Zen and nourished his body. Empress Dugu was also the mother of Emperor Wen, so she became the governor of the three prefectures of Qiao, Long and Qi. People, said to Gaozu: "Gonggu Dharma is very good, he must be the master of others, he is willing to love himself, and don't forget his contemptuous words." It is not difficult to see that this passage does not mention a word about how many nipples Li Yuan has.
When the "Old Tang Book" was written, it was only more than thirty years before the fall of the Tang Dynasty. There was no record of Li Yuan's three breasts, which means that Li Yuan had two breasts just like ordinary people. Comparing the styles of the two history books, we can find that the "Old Book of Tang" is plain, while the "Taiping Yulan" extravagantly adds auspicious photos of Li Yuan's birth, and for the first time puts forward the matter of "three breasts". It can be seen that Li Fang and others have done something wrong with Li Yuan's nipple problem. Why did he have to do this? We need to find the answer from "The Biography of Li Fang in the History of Song Dynasty".
Li Fang (925-996), a native of Raoyang, Shenzhou (now Raoyang County, Hebei Province), was a famous scholar in the Song Dynasty. He was a Pingzhangshi during the Taizong period of the Song Dynasty. One incident recorded in his biography is worthy of attention: "The police at the meeting became more and more urgent, and he ordered the civil and military ministers to advance strategies and prepare for the defense. Fang also cited stories from the Han and Tang Dynasties, which were deeply rooted in the idea of ????submitting oneself to improve the country, quelling troops and calming the people. Current commentaries Call it”. Judging this person from this passage, he is not only an admirer of the Tang Dynasty, but also a storyteller. He took the lead in writing "Taiping Yulan", which catered to Song Taizong's hobby of listening to stories. It can be seen from this that he used hearsay to fabricate the three breasts of Emperor Gaozu without any official historical records. He had two purposes: to beautify Emperor Gaozu of the Tang Dynasty and to cater to Emperor Taizong of the Song Dynasty.
Why is it Li Fang’s compliment to say that Emperor Gaozu “had three breasts”? As a famous scholar, Li Fang should have read "Historical Records", which records a man who was more powerful than Emperor Gaozu - King Wen of Zhou. "Historical Records" says: "King Wen had the appearance of a dragon and tiger shoulders, a body ten feet long, and four breasts on his chest." It is written here that King Wen of Zhou had four breasts, which does not mean that he was a deformed child, but that he used the ancients' worship of breasts to praise King Wen. In the eyes of the ancients, the breast is an important position for nurturing offspring, and it is a sign of "bringing favor to all directions, nurturing the world, and great benevolence." Li Fang got the inspiration from this. If Gaozu was allowed to have one more breast, it would be a strong support for the theory of "tolerance and tolerance" recorded in the "Old Book of Tang Dynasty". In this case, Li Fang did not hesitate to do it. Emperor Gaozu of the Tang Dynasty had a breast augmentation surgery, which gave Li Yuan, the Emperor of the Tang Dynasty, one breast more than the average person.
Later, the most popular thing about Gaozu's "three breasts" was "Cefu Yuangui", which is one of the four major books of the Northern Song Dynasty. In the second year of the Song Dynasty (1005), Zhao Hengjingde, Zhenzong of the Song Dynasty, ordered Wang Qinruo and other eighteen people to compile it together, mainly recording the deeds of the emperors and ministers of the past dynasties. In the process of compiling this history book, reference to the previously published "Taiping Yulan" cannot be excluded, so the appearance of Gao Zu's three breasts in this book is not accidental. In addition, the reason why Wang Qinruo was so keen on praising Emperor Gaozu of the Tang Dynasty had something else in mind.
According to "History of the Song Dynasty", Wang Qinruo (962-1025), whose courtesy name was Dingguo, was a new figure in the Linjiang Army. He was treacherous, sinister, and good at catering to the emperor's wishes. He was one of the five ghosts recognized by the emperor at that time. When Wang Qinruo bragged about his experience to others, he said: "When I was young, I passed through the fields and looked into the sky at night. I saw the word 'Ziwei' written in red. Later, when I was sent to Shu, I met a stranger on the road to Bao City. I told him that he had become the prime minister. . Now that he is gone, he is regarded as the Prime Minister of the Tang Dynasty, Pei Du." This shows that Wang Qinruo is not only a person who likes to play tricks, but also an admirer of the Tang Dynasty.
At the same time, he was short in appearance and had warts on his neck. People at that time called him "gall-like". A gall is a cystic neoplasm formed by local cell proliferation after the body tissue is stimulated by pathogens. It would be possible if Wang Qin had not moved the monkey on his body to the chest of the great ancestor he admired to hint at his talents. However, Wang Qinruo is an out-and-out speculator of Gaozu's three breasts.
The reason why the "New Book of Tang" written by Ouyang Xiu and Song Qi also said that Emperor Gaozu of the Tang Dynasty "had three breasts" comes from three sources: First, the four major books of the Northern Song Dynasty, "Taiping Yulan" and "Book of Records" Both books "Fu Yuan Turtle" have recorded that Emperor Gaozu of the Tang Dynasty "had three breasts". When Ouyang Xiu and Song Qi compiled the "New Book of Tang" to collect materials, they conveniently used the research results of their predecessors and gave Li Yuan an extra breast. Second, although "New Book of Tang" is more complete and rigorous in format, writing style, and style than "Old Book of Tang", it draws on a wide range of materials, including miscellaneous histories, notes, novels, etc., and writes miscellaneous histories, novels, etc. In the history books, it is inevitable that there will be the problem of spreading rumors. Ouyang Xiu and others obtained the three-breast material from miscellaneous notes and unofficial histories and directly inserted it into the history books. Third, Ouyang Xiu and his like were also admirers of the Tang Dynasty. They were inspired by ancient historical records about the auspiciousness of having multiple breasts, and directly implanted an extra breast on Li Yuan, the pioneer of the Tang Dynasty.
Generally speaking, the average pure man has two breasts, and an extra breast is a deformity. This pair of little things on a normal man can, at best, be called body accessories. Apart from marking human evolution, they seem to have no special function. Talking about a man's shriveled nipples should be criticized. people's contempt. However, the historians of the Song Dynasty were influenced by the legacy of their ancestors and used nipples to package Li Yuan, hinting at their admiration for the Tang Dynasty. This is also worth understanding. However, there are many places where the boasts about emperors in ancient history books cannot be fully believed.